Eep! We bought a brand new RV for Christmas! Shoutout to Setzer’s in Huntington, WV area. We are the proud new owners of a 2025 Forest River Salem FSX! At 20ft long it’s the perfect size for us and our three dogs. The bathroom is spacious and includes a shower, toilet and large storage cabinet. The bed is a queen size and the new, upgraded and more plush/comfy mattress is on its way as I write. There’s a small folding table that stores under the bed and a padded loveseat across from the kitchenette. Our little RV has an electric heater that looks like a fake fireplace and it’s SO CUTE! There’s a small sink, a double burner powered by propane and a small fridge. It came with an a/c unit plus a separate vent with a fan. It didn’t come with a battery, so that is on the list of things to purchase in order to get her fully road-ready! The original price on this travel trailer was $22k but we snagged it at the very end of the year when it was marked down to $12k.

Ok, so! We made our first trip in this thing to Pipestem State Park in West Virginia. We arrived after dark to a nearly empty campground and Sterling backed into a different spot than we reserved once we scoped out the lay of the land.

The bathhouse was heated and it was HOT. This campground is open year-round, but only had electric hookups at our site. To keep our winterized pipes dry (so as to avoid a freeze & bust situation this winter), we opted to use the bathhouse when we needed running water or a flushing toilet.

We had a wonderful time chatting while enjoying the fire and the super clear night sky full of stars on Christmas Eve. I love hanging out with Sterling anywhere but especially next to a fire. The stars out there were nothing short of incredible! I can’t believe my phone captured such an okay shot of them!

We woke up Christmas morning and popped cinnamon rolls into our toaster oven/air fryer combo machine. It set off the smoke detector. Oops. We boiled water to make pour-over coffee on the propane burner inside the trailer. Could not enjoy a fresh pour over until Sterling hand-ground the beans with a manual grinder. Two tablespoons of coffee took approximately four hundred years to grind. And that’s for ONE cup. We needed twice that. It was a long wait. Peep the video below of Sterling using a manual coffee bean grinder for a small glimpse into how many years it took to get enough beans for our morning coffee.

We set out to find waterfalls and drove North from the campground. We found Pipestem Falls off the roadside! We ventured up into Bluestone Lake State Park. A lot of this park was closed for winter, but we would love to come back! Christmas day was full of peace and joy and we spent the rest of a cold, rainy day inside watching a corny holiday film on my phone from our cozy camper bed. We had soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Then we baked chocolate cherry cookies. Set off the smoke detector. Again. It works! We made coffee again to go with our cookies, but, man- it was another long wait for those beans to get ground up. Worth it. Until our next adventure! Love to you all!